Dan Kulpinski

Scientists have found that the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab population has dropped to its second-lowest level of the past 17 years and is only one-third the population of 1993 (the top year in that time period).

Pollution, climate change and overfishing threaten this icon of the Bay region, according to an article in the Washington Post which described a study conducted this fall. The crab harvest will be one of the lowest since 1945.

I grew up in Maryland and here in the Bay region the blue crab is a cultural and culinary fixture. It is one thing that makes our region unique – as does its home, the Chesapeake Bay, which is our nation’s largest estuary.

Pollution entering the bay creates a “dead zone” each year stretching about 100 miles, from north of Annapolis, to south of the mouth of the Potomac River and into Virginia waters. The pollution consists of manure runoff from farms, fertilizer from residential lawns, and treated sewage. These all cause algae blooms, which suck the oxygen out of the water.

Warmer water, due to a warmer climate, kills off a grass species the crabs normally use for shelter. The crab industry also puts pressure on crab populations; annual catches are not declining as fast as the crab population.

People and climate are affecting the bay and its wildlife, crabs included. I guess the question is: Can we find some equilibrium between a growing human population, the fishing/crabbing industry and the native species of the bay? Can we all coexist and thrive, to an extent, or will a growing population and a warming climate be too much to continue things the way they’ve been?

(Full disclosure: I am a longtime member of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a group dedicated to restoring and protecting the bay and its tributary rivers.)

(Photo credit: rombocket via Flickr)